CAMPAIGN
RECORD
PART 8- FOUND AND LOSTLinks to other parts here: 123456789101112

This page continues the chronological log of our Votoms
Campaign.

7214.02.17 -PLANET SUNSA
(Game 10)

Before leaving Rostoh to find the Jijirium Cache they buried during
the war, the Gilcut Team repair their ATs, and notice something
odd. There's a tracking device on Pent's Fatty. And one
on Quey's Barking Turtle! But there isn't one on Goug's
Berserga. They must have been installed before they met
Goug... probably at the Battling Ring on Melkia. Pulling them
off their ATs and crushing them underfoot, there's a good bet they
are being followed by someone... There's little more they can
do about it though.

Loading up into the AT Carry, the team drives to the location of the
cache. But someone has already gotten there before them!
Searching the empty site, they find traces of the Balarant
military. If the cache was found during the war, there's a
good bet it was transferred to a military supply depot nearby.
Consulting the map, they locate the site of one and drive across the
wastelands, into a narrow valley choked by metal structures and
debris.

Arriving at the supply depot, it is clearly the site of a recent
battle. Wrecked Fatty and Standing Tortoise ATs litter the
twisted wreckage of the depot.

Taking no chances, Chet volunteers to stay behind and guard
the truck. The rest of Gilcut team get in their ATs and
explore the wreckage, hoping for some sign of the Jijirium in the
twisted wreckage.

Pent manages to find an accessway in the depths of the depot that
wasn't totally destroyed by the fighting. Pent and Quey
investigate on foot, and discover...

... a strange back room, with mostly empty Jijirium
containers. Someone had hooked up a Jijirium liquidizer
to some sort of bathtub, probably conducting some bizarre experiment
beyond the team's comprehension. Gathering up the scant
remains of Jijirium, they prepare to leave the supply depot when
they get an alarming radio communication from Chet- unidentified
aircraft approaching, probably hostile!

Chet's transmission is cut off by the roar of jets, gunfire and
explosions. The rest of the team don't even know if he's still
alive! A troop transport lands and deploys grim, masked foot
soldiers that look all too familiar...

As the soldiers fan out and search the complex, they come
across the team's ATs. Somehow, the team must get into their
ATs if they hope to escape. Pent tosses down some scrap metal
to distract the troops, and Quey tackles the remaining guard
from above before sealing himself in his AT.

The soldiers attempt to flee when they realize what is happening,
but are too late to escape Quey's ruthless barrage. The
explosions futher distract the remaining soldiers, giving Pent a
chance to get to his AT.

Goug takes advantage of the chaos to tackle the guard near his
Berserga, knocking him down and jumping inside.

But just as the team break for the exit, a new threat arrives.
A heavy shuttle lands and disgorges an entire squad of Red
Shoulders! The sinister squad broadcasts grim news- they claim
to have captured Chet, and demand the team come out if they want to
see him alive again.

But as soon as the team expose themselves, the Red Shoulders attack
mercilessly! With no way out of the complex, Pent knows
when to beat a hasty retreat, dodging the Red Shoulders attacks and
falling back to the depths of the supply depot.

Meanwhile, Quey catches some of the Red Shoulders off guard with a
well placed mortar barrage, seriously damaging one of the Red
Shoulders...

...who returns fire with his own barrage of missiles. Miraculously,
Quey dives for cover and avoids destruction, despite the place
falling to ruins around him.

Goug uses his Berserga to finish off a damaged Red Shoulder before
escaping into the complex amidst the chaos.

Pent saved some rockets for a reason- to blast a hole in the back of
the depot, big enough for their ATs to escape into the wreckage
beyond...

With the Red Shoulders only temporarily delayed, the others follow
Pent deeper into the treacherous wreckage.

As Pent threads through the ruins, he notices a clawed arm left
behind from some earlier struggle. Despite the imminent threat
of pursuit, he tucks the souvenir under one arm and proceeds to the
top of an impossibly deep shaft.

With no where else to go, he and the others work their way down into
the precarious shaft, as debris rains down from above. The
pursuing Red Shoulders launch a barrage that collapses the already
unstable wreckage, and everyone plunges into the shaft,
landing messily at the bottom! Pents Fatty is demolished by
debris, but as Goug pries him out of his crushed cockpit, he spots a
most unusual find. A blue AT of unknown design is trapped in
the wreckage, clearly the owner of the claw arm found earlier.

The Red Shoulders abandon the site, convinced their prey is wiped
out by the collapse. Pent, Quey and Goug must devise an escape
from the pit. They manage to cobble together the Blue AT and
get it running, and using the brute strength of their ATs, clear a
path back to the surface.

Returning to the surface, the three are relieved to see the Red
Shoulders have left, but each is silently wondering if Chet is even
alive, and if so, where he might be...